Topic 3 - The Psychology of Influence Flashcards
(21 cards)
What is social cognition?
How people perceive, interpret and respond to social information.
What is social influence?
How the presence or actions of others affect our thoughts, feelings and behaviours.
What is person perception?
The process of forming impressions and making judgments about others.
What is the Halo Effect?
A bias where a positive impression in one area affects overall judgment.
What is an attitude?
An evaluation about a person, object, group or issue.
What are the three components of attitude?
Affective (feelings), Behavioural (actions), Cognitive (beliefs).
What is cognitive dissonance?
Psychological discomfort from inconsistent thoughts, behaviours or beliefs.
How do cults exploit cognitive dissonance?
By using discomfort to influence belief or loyalty.
What is the Elaboration Likelihood Model?
A theory explaining how persuasive messages cause attitude change via two routes.
What are the two routes in the ELM?
Central (logic-based) and Peripheral (emotional or superficial cues).
What is social categorisation?
Classifying people into groups based on shared characteristics.
What is an ingroup?
A group you identify with or belong to.
What is an outgroup?
A group you do not identify with.
What is groupthink?
When group desire for harmony overrides realistic decision-making.
Define confirmation bias.
Tendency to search for or interpret information that confirms one’s beliefs.
What is false consensus bias?
Overestimating how much others share our beliefs.
What is the misinformation effect?
Memory distortion due to misleading post-event information.
What is the Dunning-Kruger effect?
Low-ability individuals overestimate their competence.
What is conformity?
Adjusting behaviour or thinking to match a group.
What is obedience?
Following direct commands from an authority figure.
What is deindividuation?
Loss of self-awareness and self-restraint in groups.
